Dramatic Scenes In Musical Biopics That Seem Made Up - But Aren't

La Bamba was a biopic that focused on the rise and fall of Ritchie Valens, often considered one of the founders of Chicano rock and roll. Valens's music career was tragically short, but it seems he had been avoiding disaster since he was a child. The film depicts Valens as having aviophobia that stemmed from losing a friend to a piece of falling airplane debris that came down when the aircraft above had a mid-air collision. 

While that element of the movie seems added in for dramatization purposes, the tragedy is completely real. In reality, on January 31, 1957, two Air Force fighter jets were testing their radar systems in the air above the San Fernando Valley. Unbeknownst to them, a Douglas DC-7B transport plane was completing its first test flight in the area. As one of these jets made a wide turn, it accidentally slammed into the DC-7B. As the transport plane began uncontrollably spiraling downward, debris from the crash rained down into the neighborhood below. The plane itself crashed into the Pacoima Congressional Church while major parts of the plane that had been sheared off after impact with the fighter jet crashed into the playground of Pacoima Junior High School. There were over 200 children playing on the grounds at the time of the crash. In total, 3 children (including Valens's best friend) were killed and 75 were injured. In a twist of fate, Ritchie Valens was actually at his grandfather's funeral that day, but the tragedy left him with an intense fear of flying and nightmares where he saw himself dying in a plane crash. 

Tragically, Valens's life was cut short when he was killed in the same plane crash that took Buddy Holly's life on February 3, 1959. Valens was only 17 years old. 

Despite being known as the most famous blind musician, Ray was not born blind. In one of the most heartbreaking scenes of the film Ray, a young Ray Charles bears witness to his younger brother's death. The tragic scene did indeed come from a very real family tragedy experienced by Charles and his parents. 

Reality proved very similar to the movie. When Ray was around 5 years old, he and his younger brother George, who was around 4, were playing in the backyard of their home. They were playing around the edge of a large metal tub their mother used to wash laundry when George accidentally fell in. Ray attempted to help his little brother, but the weight of the clothes he wore and Ray's small size made the situation especially difficult. Ray ran to find his mother, but by the time they were able to pull George out of the tub, the little boy was already dead.

After his brother's tragic death, Ray slowly began losing his vision - apparently due to untreated glaucoma. Approximately between the ages of 5 and 7, Ray dealt with a worsening vision that his mother prepared him for by continuing to assign him tasks around the house so he could familiarize himself with the world around him. He became so adept at navigating the world as a blind man that some even came to doubt he was actually blind. 

One of the most tense moments in The Buddy Holly Story is when the band arrives in New York to perform at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. People are stunned to see three White men at a Black music venue. 

This scene is completely true. In reality, on August 16, 1957, Buddy Holly and The Crickets did become the first all-White band to perform at the Apollo Theater. While it took several performances for the audience to embrace Holly and his music, his presence at the Apollo breached a racial divide in the music industry at that time. Holly and his band were able to perform due to an error made on the behalf of a ticketing agent who mistook Buddy Holly and The Crickets for an all-Black R&B band called The Crickets. Regardless, Holly's performance won over the audience and made history.  

Rocketman was released in 2019 and showcased the ups and downs of Elton John's illustrious career. He is shown to be a musical genius from a very early age. One scene in particular shows Elton as a boy showing up at the Royal Academy of Music for an audition. Young Elton watches a musician play a piece of classical music perfectly. Elton follows, and with no sheet music in front of him, is able to perform the music piece he's just heard to perfection. This stuns the adults in the room who understand the high level of talent needed to pull something like that off. 

This scene happened just as described in the film. In a book written by Elizabeth Rosenthal titled Elton John's Musical Journey, the scene is also described as being incredibly powerful and a turning point for Elton. It was the moment he proved that his talent was innate. The day of the audition, Elton did indeed play a piece of classical music composed by George Frideric Handel completely from memory after only hearing it once. The young boy had an ear for music, and the Academy recognized the talent he possessed, so they presented Elton with a junior scholarship to attend the Academy. He did so for several years until dropping out at the age of 17 to pursue his musical career. 

Many aspects of director Baz Luhrmann's 2022 biopic Elvis are highly stylized - befitting the larger-than-life icon the film represents - but one cinematic exchange that stayed very true to life was the scene in which Presley, shaken by the assassination of Robert Kennedy, goes into an emotional spiral and can't bring himself to record a traditional happy Christmas special the way his manager Tom Parker wants him to. Instead, Presley and the show's director Steve Binder mutually decide to re-imagine the entire concept of the show from a traditional Christmas special to a more raw exploration of Elvis' catalogue. Instead of closing with “I'll Be Home For Christmas,” as Col. Parker had initially wanted, Presley delivered a raw, emotional rendition of a new song called “If I Can Dream," an homage to Martin Luther King's most famous speech that expressed Presley's growing fears about the nation's intensifying racial hatred.

Robert Kennedy wasn't shot during the actual show itself, as the movie depicts, but he was killed while the special was in rehearsals, and the event was seemingly a “last straw” type moment where Elvis realized he couldn't just record a happy special without addressing America's civil rights crisis. Watching Elvis demand to sing this song against Parker's urging might feel to the modern viewer like the director's attempt to give his biopic subject more of a modern conscience, but it essentially is exactly what happened.

The film What’s Love Got to Do With It centers on the ups and downs of star Tina Turner. One situation brought up in the film involves Tina having to give up her rights to much of her work in exchange for her almost ex-husband, Ike Turner, allowing her to keep the name she had gained fame with - Tina Turner. While this may seem extreme, it did in fact happen. 

In an interview with Oprah, Tina opened up about Ike and his abuse and manipulation tactics. The conversation between Tina and Oprah went as follows:

“Ike's problem was that he was a musician that always wanted to be a star; and was a star, locally, but never internationally... so he then changed the name to Ike and changed my name to Tina because if I ran away, Tina was his name. It was patented as you call it.”

"So he could own you," Oprah interjects.

"So he could own me," Turner continues. "He was smart. He wasn't an educated smart man, but has a common sense."

Ike knew that Tina's career and fame were tied very closely to her name and thus attempted to extort her - she could keep her name by marriage in exchange for giving up her rights to the music she had already produced while they were together. Tina ultimately agreed and was able to get away from her abusive husband. Despite what had occurred, she still thrived as a musician for decades after.